When writing, does anyone add placeholders in their story?

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What I mean is that you write in the brackets what needs to be added or changed for when you do edits. Does anyone do that?

My Turn:

No, I don’t do that, but I should. There are so many things that I need to change or add in the story, but I don’t do that while I am writing. While I am writing, I am in the zone. I also suppose that I want the novel to look clean, yet I forget things.

What about you? Do you add brackets to your novel when it comes to adding or changing things for later?

Thoughts and feelings?

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No I add an editor’s note. Going back over that kinda thing is bit of a hassle.

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I use () a lot, it adds to the character’s voice and thought structure. tho idk what you mean by brackets so maybe i’m answering the wrong question.

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That is what I meant. It could be parenthesis or brackets.

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I just use ELEPHANT and LEOPARD placeholders. All caps to avoid confusion.

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great! then I answered the correct question.

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This is what I meant to say, but couldn’t think of the word. Thank you. LOL!

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Understood.

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Yeah, I meant to say “placeholders” instead, but forgot.

LOL!

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No placeholders here, I find it distracting. If I want to change something while I’m writing then I change it. With the rare exception of sometimes when I’m drafting in a notebook I’ll think of a major change and then I’ll jot it in like [ HEY DOOFUS REMEMBER THIS CHARACTER HAS NO ARMS NOW ] just in case future editor me forgot.

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In the past I’ve only ever needed it for forgotten words or names. Not whole scenes or plot points.

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ah oops.

no, I don’t do placeholders, unless i’m illustrating the book.

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I do this a lot with stuff I need to research or fact check but I need to resist the rabbit hole of Googling so I keep momentum in actually writing the darn thing. So I’ll write something like, [Some conversation about car parts] or [look up XYZ].

If I’m burned out, I’ll just write bullet point in my chapters of what I’d like to happen and move on with the intention of coming back to it when my brain is up for it. I’m guilty of writing stuff like, “[some fancy description goes here]. :laughing:

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Sometimes when editing, I think of an idea of a place or name but can’t come up with it right away, and want to leave it for the next editing or writing session. So I might write PLACE NAME or PERSON NAME and I know I wouldn’t have written that anywhere else in the story other than the places where I want a name, so I can use word search on it.

But I don’t use brackets or parentheses. I can’t think about using them. You know you have to kind of go out of your way and use the shift key, right? Or actually locate where the brackets are on the keyboard. I can’t even think about doing that :stuck_out_tongue:

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I often do, but mainly for reasons when I have no name for a person, place or race… Then when I find one, I edit it in… Might be time consuming, but I’m editing anyway and often find that I re-write a little as I go, so for me that’s a bit of a win…

SD

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